‘The Other Woman’ Beats Out ‘Captain America’ for Top Spot; ‘Transcendence’ Is Disaster

'The Other Woman' Beats Out 'Captain America' for Top Spot; 'Transcendence' Is Disaster

Nick Cassavetes’ “The Other Woman” (20th Century Fox) took in $9.3 million yesterday, more than double the gross of any other film as it heads for a clear weekend victory. The Cameron Diaz revenge comedy will come close to the opening gross of raunchfest “Bridesmaids” in 2011. That smash hit did $7.8 million on its first day before strong word of mouth and a long summer run propelled it to a $169 million domestic total.

The robust women’s comedy finally topped “Captain America – The Winter Soldier” (Buena Vista), which took second place with $4.5 million. Close behind is “Heaven Is for Real” (Sony), grossing $4.05 million, with a chance to challenge for the full weekend second spot. This low-budget faith-based film already looks to be one of the most profitable films of the year. Its decent hold suggests a lengthy run ahead and a shot to reach $100 million.

Two new openers fell behind the leaders. Relativity’s acquisition of European-financed Detroit drama “Brick Mansions” was #4 for the day (though likely to fall to #5 for the weekend) with $3.6 million. The action film starring the late Paul Walker is an English language remake of 2006’s “District B13” (released stateside by Magnolia). “The QuietOnes” (Lionsgate), a British horror film, continues this year’s consistent trend: lagging interest in the horror genre. It came in at #6 with only $1.5 million.

This weekend’s solid start led the way to a Top 10 daily take of $30 million, 25% better than the same Friday last year. This week completes the first third of 2014, with grosses about 9% ahead so far for 2014. Next week’s release of “The Amazing Spider-Man 2” (Sony) will begin what the industry considers Summer, which last year turned around what had been a disastrous initial four months. With projections (not always accurate) that the upcoming slate doesn’t equal Summer 2013, any built-in lead so far could keep the year from falling short.

The other holdovers in the Top 10 suffer from comparison to last week’s holiday Friday. “Rio 2” (20th Century Fox) took #5 with $3.275 million. Down 75% and only #7, and likely to drop another notch for the full weekend, was Warner Bros.’ disastrous “Transcendence,” taking in only $1.25 million. Lagging further behind were #8 “Bears” (Buena Vista), $1.2 million, #9 “Divergent” (Lionsgate) at $1 million and #10 “A Haunted House 2” (Open Road) with $970,000.